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Monday, June 12, 2006

Not particularly permaculture, but we've just identified Spotted Flycatchers nesting, tucked away in the corner of the eaves of our holiday cottage, which is exciting.An update on the compost: the main pile has shrunk amazingly and so the need to build a second one has diminished for the moment. I emptied the bucket of wee (nitrogen) and oak sawdust (carbon) onto the compost heap but there was absolutely no smell of urine at all, just a touch of oak on the nose! The sawdust (normally very slow to decompose and not at all the right thing to mulch with raw, as it draws nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down) is already turning dark and crumbly. Both human urine and chicken poo are great compost accelerants, so I am now putting the chicken house sweepings in my bucket for further treatment before it goes onto the heap. Hopefully we'll end up with some very rich compost soon!Loads of things to do, including re-roofing a barn this summer, and just the two of us to do everything ... and I thought permaculture was a design system that saves effort! Thanks for the two postings on the pros and cons of keeping goats, keep the advice coming!